A decidedly non-mellow fellow who worked on an online jazz music show called "Mellow Down Easy" (*snort*) set fire to the radio station where he volunteered, because he was pissed that his song selections for the show were changed without his permission:

Paul Webster Feinstein, 24, has been charged with second-degree felony arson for the Jan. 5 fire that caused $300,000 damage to the studios of 91.7 FM KOOP. He faces from two to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted.

Feinstein told investigators that he was "very unhappy" about the changes to his playlist, said Austin Fire Department Battalion Chief Greg Nye. The songs were intended for an Internet broadcast that occurs when the station is off the air.

Link. I love that the guy's shows and playlists are still available online. (via Wayne's list)

Today on Boing Boing tv: Codehunters, a short animé film by UK-based director Ben Hibon of stateless films, produced with Glasgow-based Axis Animation. From the introduction:

The port city of Lhek is on the brink of collapse. A Pacific Rim state in a not too distant Asian future with no borders, no meaningful government and little law and order.

Corruption and crime are out of control in the dark alleys of Eda, Lhek’s slum district. Most sectors of the city are controlled by the army of dictator Khaan. The most underprivileged parts of the city are infested with dark Demons, ferocious creatures that spread fear and death amongst the city’s inhabitants. Rumor has it that the Demons are controlled by Khaan in order to keep his people in check.

Link to full BBtv post with video and discussion.

BB reader Jason Griffey says,

Following up on last year's cloud that was on BoingBoing, I did another Tag Cloud to help people visualize the State of the Union address: Link.

Funny old commercial for Space Food Sticks, which I believe were just cat crap in foil pouches. The voiceover is by the inimitable Paul Frees. (Via Serious East) (Thanks, Marilyn!)

There's plenty of reasonable concern over the increasing use of surveillance cameras -- but if you're going to install them, you'd think that you'd want cameras that were actually useful. Not so in San Francisco. As Engadget points out, the cameras in San Francisco have ridiculously bad frame rates, making them more like still cameras than video cameras. In some cases, there are 10 seconds between frames, meaning that the "footage" is often not particularly useful in solving crimes. San Francisco still insists that the cameras are useful for deterrent purposes. Somehow we doubt that it's a "feature" of these cameras to protect privacy by being horrifically bad. It does make you wonder, though, who makes security cameras that only take a photo every 10 seconds -- and, even more importantly, why would anyone buy such a security camera?

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TwistedOne151 writes to recommend a ScienceNOW article describing the work of a team of Italian neurobiologists who have found the roots of the capacity for tool use in the primate brain: the brain treats the tool as part of the body. The experiment as described is passing clever.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Wired News reports that some relatively late-model iPod owners are discovering that their devices don't work with Apple's newly-launched iTunes video rentals -- even though those iPod models have a video playback feature.

As of Tuesday, the issue had been raised multiple times in Apple's support forums. So far the company's only response has been to confirm that movie rentals work only with the iPhone, iPod touch, iPod classic and the third-generation iPod nano. Earlier iPods, including fifth-generation iPods sold before the September 2007 release of the sixth-generation iPod classic, are incompatible with rented videos.

Eliot Van Buskirk at Wired's "Listening Post" blog has more here.

CC-licensed image ganked from the photostream of Dan Taylor.

Analyst reports circulating in the news today indicate that about a million iPhones have been unlocked to operate on networks other than AT&T -- and that's said to be roughly 27% of all the iPhones sold in 2007. If accurate, the news is not good for Apple: the company earns significantly more when a new iPhone user signs up for service with AT&T. Link. So where are all those unlocked iPhones? This post by Damon Darlin on the NYT's tech blog gathers first-person accounts by folks overseas who weigh in. (Thanks, Adam)

Link (Via Scott Beale / MeFi)

Prior to 9/11, there was a lot of effort being put into plans for internet access from airplanes. However, the resulting turmoil in the airline industry put all of those plans on hold. In the end, that may have been a good thing, as the early technology was both expensive and clunky, and only a few generations later are we starting to see technology that is both affordable to install and use showing up. In the last few months, we've seen more and more stories about WiFi in the sky, with the latest one being that Continental is about to start offering live TV and WiFi, similar to a few other airlines. Having just flown on Continental on an excruciatingly long trip to Europe and back, I'd say that having internet access and live TV would have made the flights much more enjoyable.

What's really interesting here, though, is that Continental is turning to competitor JetBlue to provide the service. We were among those surprised when JetBlue bought some available spectrum for air-to-ground internet access. Like many, we had suspected that it would go to a service provider that would provide a generic service to any airline that wanted it. But, with JetBlue winning the bid, it opened up questions about whether the company would hoard the opportunity as a differentiator for its own flights. Apparently not. If JetBlue can succeed in outfitting other airlines, it could represent a useful side-business for the company -- even if it diminishes some of JetBlue's own competitive advantage. Of course, given that a new study has suggested that WiFi-in-the-sky really isn't a huge selling point, perhaps this makes sense. Basically, people are saying that it's a nice-to-have rather than a need-to-have. In other words, it's unlikely to bring that much new business directly to JetBlue, but if JetBlue can make it available on lots of other airlines, people would be happy using it.

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Stony Stevenson writes "Computer security expert Bruce Schneier took a swipe at a number of sacred cows of security including RFID tags, national ID cards, and public CCTV security cameras in his keynote address to Linux.conf.au (currently being held in Melbourne, Australia). These technologies were all examples of security products tailored to provide the perception of security rather than tackling actual security risks, Schneier said. The discussion of public security — which has always been clouded by emotional decision making — has been railroaded by groups with vested interests such as security vendors and political groups, he claimed. 'For most of my career I would insult "security theater" and "snake oil" for being dumb. In fact, they're not dumb. As security designers we need to address both the feeling and the reality of security. We can't ignore one. It's not enough to make someone secure, that person needs to also realize they've been made secure. If no-one realizes it, no-one's going to buy it,' Schneier said."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CBC has an article about U2 manager Paul McGuinness' amusing tirade against ISPs who are "destroying the recorded music industry" with peer-to-peer file-sharing. Short version: blame the dirty hippies.

McGuinness said much of Silicon Valley arose out of "hippy values" that did not include a respect for copyright and established business models. Many of the area's entrepreneurs don't consider themselves "makers of burglary kits," he said.

"There are plenty of private equity fund managers who are Deadheads," he said, a reference to hippy icons The Grateful Dead. "And embedded deep down in the brilliance of those entrepreneurial, hippy values seems to be a disregard for the true value of music."

Here's a nice photo of Mr. McGuinness and Mr. Vox holding up a sheet of paper calling up the UK government to support a copyright extension for recorded music.

Link

Chelsie Gosk says

The New Yorker has selected the winners of the Eustace Tilley design contest. Winners have been notified via FlickrMail on their Flickr accounts, so if you entered, please check your Flickr account as soon as possible, and if you know someone who entered, please spread the word. Thank you.

Link

Since it's fairly well known at this point that sketchy sites can try to trick users into installing malware, it appears that malware creators are increasingly looking for ways to make its malware available from more legitimate sites. Two recent stories highlight this trend. First is the news that some hackers successfully rigged Google to link to sites that installed malware on certain popular searches. It took a fairly elaborate scheme to get it to work -- and it only lasted for a few days -- but it does highlight that just because a site's found via Google, it doesn't mean that it's safe. The second one apparently involves the popular urban legend debunking (or confirming) website, Snopes.com. Apparently, a well-known purveyor of adware has been running questionable or misleading ads (via Slashdot) on the site for over six months. Snopes was apparently told about this ad, but still chose to leave it running.

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Brian Herzog says:

I was going through my great grandmother's old school books, and found this "Race Types" plate in Maury's New Complete Geography, copyright 1906.

Almost any viewpoint from the past will be interesting for the contrast to current thought, and race issues especially so. In this case, it's interesting who they chose to highlight as a race, ie, "Scotch Highlander."

Also, this books groups Anglo-Saxon, Arab, Hebrew, Russian, and others all as "Caucasian," and classifies American Negro as "Ethiopian."

Is 2008 better or worse than 1906?

Link

From Warren Ellis' blog:

"The partner of designer and COILHOUSE co-creator Mildred Von has been arrested in Dubai for carrying melatonin. This, apparently, gave them the excuse to declare without testing that a few fragments of dirt in the bottom of his bag were hashish. Everyone's hoping that they'll be forced to release him in another seven days but the Dubai authorities, as you might expect, are behaving like monsters.

Details are here. Please read them before asking questions. Mil's contact details are in that post too. We might get lucky and they might bounce him out when it turns out there's nothing to hold him on, but, really, that doesn't sound like Dubai. If you think you can help, please do get in touch with Mil. Thanks."

Link (Thanks, Alias!)

Hell Yeah! reminds us of a 2-week-old development that somehow escaped notice here. A team of Russian hackers has found a way to decipher a Yahoo CAPTCHA, thought to be one of the most difficult, with 35% accuracy. The Russian group's notice, posted by one "John Wane," is dated January 16. This site hosts a rapidshare link to what looks to be demonstration software for Windows, and quotes the Russian researchers: "It's not necessary to achieve high degree of accuracy when designing automated recognition software. The accuracy of 15% is enough when attacker is able to run 100,000 tries per day, taking into the consideration the price of not automated recognition — one cent per one CAPTCHA."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Over the past few months, more and more people have been noticing that eBay seems to have stagnated. Sure, it's been making plenty of money and still gets a ton of traffic, but it's not growing as fast as people would like, and there are numerous signs that it's starting to plateau. With Meg Whitman stepping down and John Donahue stepping up to the CEO position, the company has now announced lower fees and "tightened" seller standards to try to cut down on the rampant fraud that has managed to scare off many potential eBay buyers. Amusingly, this lowered fee comes just a day after new research hyped up how much eBay was saving people. The researchers behind the report suggested that, if the economy does go into a real recession, eBay should benefit as people switch to eBay searching for bargains. If that were truly the case, though, then it would seem eBay wouldn't have to be cutting fees.

The real problem may simply be that eBay is too constrained by its own success. It's attempts at branching out with things like Skype and StumbleUpon certainly haven't done much to help eBay, as the eagerly prayed-for synergies turned out to not exist. eBay's own attempts at revitalizing its core business have been equally pointless. So, it seems like something of a desperation play to lower fees, but it's difficult to see it having much of an impact. Certainly, it will make eBay sellers happier, but the transaction fees aren't the barrier eBay is facing in staying relevant. In fact, eBay itself should know this. When Yahoo tried to compete with eBay, it's key selling point was lower transaction costs for sellers, and that didn't do much to attract users.

eBay finds itself in a tough position. If it changes anything in its core business too drastically, it risks alienating those who helped bring the company to its current position. But, not changing will continue the stagnation process and certainly make the hole it needs to dig itself out of that much deeper. In figuring out a new path, it may want to take a few lessons from Amazon, which has been successfully reinventing itself from the inside with its web services offerings, while still striving to keep its core userbase satisfied. Amazon recognized that it could expand into a non-competing business that leveraged its strengths. While some might say that's what eBay tried to do with Skype, that was an acquisition, rather than a ground up offering, and it's still never been clearly explained what synergies there are between the two. In contrast, Amazon's web services offering clearly builds on its experience managing large scale backend operations, as well as its ability to handle a massive number of transactions. eBay probably should be trying to become the "Kinkos" of the web -- a small business's ideal partner -- but has yet to figure out how to do so.

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NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Angered at the RIAA's 'gamesmanship' in joining multiple 'John Does' in a single case without any basis for doing so, a Magistrate Judge in Maine has suggested to the presiding District Judge in Arista v. Does 1-27 that the record companies and/or their lawyers should be fined under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules, for misrepresenting the facts. In a lengthy footnote to her opinion recommending denial of a motion to dismiss the complaint (PDF, see footnote 5), Judge Kruvchak concluded that 'These plaintiffs have devised a clever scheme to obtain court-authorized discovery prior to the service of complaints, but it troubles me that they do so with impunity and at the expense of the requirements of Rule 11(b)(3) because they have no good faith evidentiary basis to believe the cases should be joined.' She noted that once the RIAA dismisses its 'John Doe' case it does not thereafter join the defendants when it sues them in their real names. Arista v. Does 1-27 is the same case in which student attorneys at the University of Maine Law School, "enthusiastic about being directly connected to a case with a national scope and significance", are representing undergrads targeted by the RIAA."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

ianare writes "An application that gives fresh new meaning to 'digital rights management' has been pioneered by Aboriginal Australians. It relies on a user's profile to control access to a multimedia archive. The need to create profiles based on a user's name, age, sex and standing within their community comes from traditions over what can and cannot be viewed. For example, men cannot view women's rituals, and people from one community cannot view material from another without first seeking permission. Images of the deceased cannot be viewed by their families. These requirements threw up issues surrounding how the material could be archived, as it was not only about preserving the information into a database in a traditional sense, but also about how people would access it depending on their gender, their relationship to other people, and where they were situated."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We were just noting how Europe seemed to recognize that having ISPs simply hand over the IP addresses of individuals could be a violation of privacy, and along comes the EU's top court to confirm that stance. The European Court of Justice has come down with a decision stating that entertainment industry companies cannot force ISPs to hand over IP addresses, though local governments could put in place rules that would compel them to do so. It seems rather interesting that just as the entertainment industry is pushing for increased ISP liability, the courts are recognizing the sorts of privacy issues this raises. It makes you wonder how the courts will feel when the entertainment industry tells ISPs they need to monitor every file transferred to make sure it contains no unauthorized material.

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Apu writes in to inform us that the ACLU is trying to block an Ohio county from moving from touchscreen voting machines back to paper ballots. While it may seem like Cuyahoga County — which includes Cleveland — is moving in a good direction from the perspective of ballot security, the system chosen tabulates all votes at a central location. This means that voters don't get notified if their ballot contains errors, and thus they have no chance to correct it. The ACLU of Ohio is asking a federal judge for an injunction against any election in Cuyahoga County it they move to the new system.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Pre-PMA 2008: Pentax has announced that it will exhibit three forthcoming lenses both at PMA 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada and Photo Imaging Expo 2008 in Tokyo, Japan. Two - a 55mm F1.4 and 60-250mm F4 - are part of Pentax's flagship DA* line whilst the third, a 17-70mm F4, is a standard DA lens. All three lenses will feature SDM ultrasonic focusing.

_Hellfire_ sends us over to Baseline Magazine for a longish article entitled After 20 Years, Critics Question the BSA's Real Motives, which paints the Business Software Alliance in the same colors as the RIAA. "A recent Associated Press story highlighted the fact that 90 percent of the $13 million collected by the BSA in 2006 came from small businesses. Since 1993 the group has collected an estimated $89 million in damages from businesses on behalf of its members, every penny of which it keeps. 'I don't know of a business where you can get away with raiding a customer with armed marshals and expect them to continue to do business with you...' said [Sterling] Ball, who shifted his company to open source software after the raid."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It's been expected for a while, but reports are coming out that Swedish prosecutors will finally get around to filing charges against The Pirate Bay this week. If you don't remember, Swedish authorities bowed to US pressure a year and a half ago, and seized the servers of The Pirate Bay, a bittorrent search engine. As was noted at the time, the Pirate Bay doesn't host any infringing content, but simply acts as a search engine -- one that some artists have learned to use to their own advantage. The raid, which the entertainment industry quickly announced represented a "significant blow" against piracy, actually did the reverse. The resulting publicity, garnered the site a lot more attention, which has only continued to grow. It quickly set up new servers outside of Sweden, and it's hard to see a lawsuit doing very much but increasing the amount of attention given to the site. When the actual lawsuit is announced, expect quotes from the RIAA and MPAA about what a big deal this is -- but the only really big deal is how little this lawsuit will do to help the industry. It won't help them adjust to a changing market. It won't help them to adopt necessary new business models. It will only increase the attention given to the Pirate Bay and other sites. We've seen this before with Napster. We've seen this before with Grokster. We've seen this before with Kazaa. So why does the entertainment industry keep doing this?

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Not Comcastic writes "Two weeks after officially opening proceedings on Comcast's BitTorrent throttling, angry users are bombarding the FCC with comments critical of the cable provider's practices. 'On numerous occasions, my access to legal BitTorrent files was cut off by Comcast,' a systems administrator based in Indianapolis wrote to the FCC shortly after the proceeding began. 'During this period, I managed to troubleshoot all other possible causes of this issue, and it was my conclusion (speaking as a competent IT administrator) that this could only be occurring due to direct action at the ISP (Comcast) level.' Another commenter writes 'I have experienced this throttling of bandwidth in sharing open-source software, e.g. Knoppix and Open Office. Also I see considerable differences in speed ftp sessions vs. html. They are obviously limiting speed in ftp as well.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:

How Expekt uses Basecamp to manage one of the leading European online gaming sites
“Late this summer I heard about Basecamp and 37signals. 2 months later our whole marketing department collaborates in Basecamp. Lost mails, confusion, and who’s doing what/when are no longer a problem.”

Library professionals use Backpack for presentations (and more)
MCLC Library Tech Talk, a technology interest group for the library professionals in Maricopa County, AZ, recently published a review/description of Backpack: “I use Backpack in particular to collaborate with colleagues on projects or presentations, and often use it to outline any presentation I might give.”

RunMyProcess lets you integrate your Basecamp information with other applications without any programming
“The global idea is to offer integration of Basecamp with another application without any programming: Just design the flow of information and select from our library of connectors the one needed.”Where to get status updates from 37signals
If you’re ever having trouble reaching a 37signals site (including our products), then check the 37signals System Status page. We’ll always post the latest news there on any service issues. The 37status Twitter stream will also keep you up to date on the latest news.

Print data from a php script to a Campfire room with Ice Cube
Up until now, the only API available for Campfire was Tinder, an unofficial API built in Ruby On Rails. But now there’s Ice Cube, which makes it possible to print data from a php script to a room in Campfire. Features include: join room, send message (incl. paste), and leave room.

SmallBizTechnology.com recommends Highrise
SmallBizTechnology.com calls Highrise a new CRM entrant you should highly consider: “It’s feature rich and I recommend you give it a spin for your own business.”

iBackpack makes Backpack pages friendly for the iPhone and iPod Touch
“iBackpack is code (mostly CSS) that optimizes Backpack pages for use on the iPhone and iPod touch. The iBackpack code is hidden from other devices, so it won’t change the way Backpack looks or works on other devices.”

Subscribe to the Product Blog RSS feed.

Stony Stevenson writes "European Union countries can refuse to disclose names of file sharers on the Internet in civil cases, the EU's top court said. The European Court of Justice has ruled on a dispute between Spanish music rights holders association Promusicae and Spain's top telecoms operator Telefonica over Telefonica's Internet clients who shared copyright material on the Web. Telefonica argued that, under a national law based on EU rules, it only had to disclose the name of an Internet subscriber for criminal actions, not civil ones. But the court said: 'Community law does not require the member states, in order to ensure the effective protection of copyright, to lay down an obligation to disclose personal data in the context of civil proceedings.' I wonder if this ruling will have any effect on other cases in other countries."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Given China's mentality towards its citizens, it probably won't surprise many people to find out that the head of the country's biggest mobile phone operator gleefully acknowledges that it can spy on anyone's location and has no qualms about handing that info over to authorities. He also talks about how the company is considering using this data to better target advertisements. While the article paints this as somehow shocking, it's been widely assumed that this was true already. And, the idea, as expressed in the article, that it wouldn't or couldn't happen in the United States seems a bit naive as well. Given how telcos helped the US government spy on phone calls without warrants, it seems like it may already be happening here as well.

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I'll be covering the eTech conference in San Diego in early March. It's been a few years, last time I went was just before my surgery in 2002. I'll be going as a blogger, not presenting. Many thanks to O'Reilly for approving the press pass, and I look forward to catching up with many old friends.

A group of respected security researchers has released a paper on the security holes that would be opened up if a broad warrantless wiretapping law is passed. THe subject could hardly be more timely, as Congress is debating the subject now. Steve Bellovin, Matt Blaze, Whit Diffie, Susan Landau, Peter Neumann, and Jennifer Rexford have released a preprint of Risking Communications Security: Potential Hazards of the Protect America Act (PDF), which will appear in the January/February 2008 issue of IEEE Security and Privacy. It will hit the stands in a few weeks. From Matt Blaze's blog posting: "As someone who began his professional carrier in the Bell System (and who stayed around through several of its successors), the push for telco immunity represents an especially bitter disillusionment for me. Say what you will about the old Phone Company, but respect for customer privacy was once a deeply rooted point of pride in the corporate ethos. There was no faster way to be fired (or worse) than to snoop into call records or facilitate illegal wiretaps, well intentioned or not. And it was genuinely part of the culture; we believed in it, even those of us ordinarily disposed toward a skeptical view of the official company line. Now it all seems like just another bit of cynical, focus-group-tested PR."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lance Knobel: "I'd install FlickrFan in every middle school and high school social studies class. I guarantee it would provoke endless discussion and ensure engagement in the issues of the day."

I totally agree. It would be great to see it at checkout lines in supermarkets and on kiosks in BART stations too.

Forbes magazine just published my latest article for them, a piece for a special on global pop culture about the "otaci" -- Romanian manga enthusiasts who remix French, Japanese and American comic styles, language and stories:

The artwork in the individual panels veered from traditional Japanese manga to surreal, "adult" images seemingly lifted from the French classic magazine Métal Hurlant to stuff that could have come from the pages of the latest Marvel comic. The text, too, was a glorious linguistic salmagundi, mostly Romanian, but with English, French and Japanese phrases sprinkled liberally throughout.

"What the hell is this thing?" I shouted at Stefan, over the din of the monstrous, grinding automated mojito machine that was attempting to crush lemons beside us.

"They choose different languages and styles based on the kind of stories they want to tell," he said.

Link

Today on BBtv: Aloysius P. Koford, the great-grandpappy of cartoonist Adam "Ape Lad" Koford, recounts his history as a Mountain Man -- kind of like being a hobo, as he explains, only more "grub," less clothing. Link to BBtv post with video and discussion.

Previously on Boing Boing tv:

Ape Lad: The True Hollywood Story of Aloysius Koford

Ape Lad: Hobo Life

Laugh Out Loud Cats: The True History

Mole Men imagined by Ape Lad / Mole Crunk

John Hodgman's Mole Men / Cavalcade of Hobos

Laugh Out Loud Cats: new book by Adam Koford

jmason reminds us of a story from a few weeks back that got little attention, adding "This doesn't seem to be just bluster; as far as I can tell, everyone who knows the RBN now agrees that this seems likely." Brian Krebs's Security Fix blog at the Washington Post carried a story about the Storm worm containing some pretty staggering allegations. "Dmitri Alperovitch [of Secure Computing] said federal law enforcement officials who need to know have already learned the identities of those responsible for running the Storm worm network, but that US authorities have thus far been prevented from bringing those responsible to justice due to a lack of cooperation from officials in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the Storm worm authors are thought to reside. In a recent investigative series on cyber crime featured on washingtonpost.com, St. Petersburg was fingered as the host city for one of the Internet's most profligate and cyber-crime enabling operation — the Russian Business Network. Alperovitch blames the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the political influence of operatives within the Federal Security Service (the former Soviet KGB) for the protection he says is apparently afforded to cybercrime outfits such as RBN and the Storm worm gang. 'The right people now know who the Storm worm authors are,' Alperovitch said. 'It's incredibly hard because a lot of the FSB leadership and Putin himself originate from there, where there are a great deal of people with connections in high places.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Here's a new short by Michael Mouris, featuring "Spider Hangout" by Dominic Bisignano. Link.

Previously on Boing Boing:

New stop-motion animation vids from milkfat's Michael Mouris

Video: cats in things they're not supposed to be in

The C|Net Crave blog has up an article exploring the history of console gaming, and wonders aloud about the pecking order of the various systems. "Gaming is so subjective that there is no single "greatest" system ever. It might sound like a cop-out, but it really depends on what standards you're using and what generation you grew up in. I loved the SNES, and would personally call it the greatest system of all time. However, the NES and PlayStation could both easily be called the best, based on the standards they set and the advances they presented to gaming." The Guardian follows up this piece, noting that the article's rose-colored recollections of the SNES days may not be entirely accurate. Subjective or not, it's a good question: which consoles have a valid place in history and which ones should be forgotten?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There have been some claims that the recording industry's investigative techniques may be illegal. While court cases alleging these techniques are illegal are still pending in the US, in Europe there seems to be a lot more support for the idea. In the Netherlands, for example, a court ruled that having ISPs hand over IP addresses to the recording industry would be a violation of privacy laws. Given last week's discussion on whether or not IP addresses should be considered private, this seems relevant.

However, over in Switzerland, the story is even more complicated, as Swiss officials have specifically told an "anti-piracy" company to stop some of its tactics. Specifically, in order to get around laws that say you can only obtain IP addresses from ISPs in a criminal, rather than civil lawsuit, the company gets Swiss officials to file criminal charges, gets the IP address, files a civil suit with it, and then drops the criminal case. Whether or not you think getting IP addresses is a violation of privacy, it seems clear that this company has gone well beyond the spirit of the law in getting them and using them in civil suits.

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I have a juicy project I'm working on, a new source of great pics for FlickrFan. In the meantime Stan Krute did a new version of the Obama poster, to the right, with the "Progress" swapped out and "Make change" in its place.

Groundbreaking comedian Steve Martin, who recently published his memoir Born Standing Up, has a lengthy piece in Smithsonian on how he became funny. It's a delight to read someone so smart and hysterical talk about how he "got his act together" in the late 1960s and early 1970s by discovering what makes people laugh. From the article:

In a college psychology class, I had read a treatise on comedy explaining that a laugh was formed when the storyteller created tension, then, with the punch line, released it. I didn't quite get this concept, nor do I still, but it stayed with me and eventually sparked my second wave of insights. With conventional joke telling, there's a moment when the comedian delivers the punch line, and the audience knows it's the punch line, and their response ranges from polite to uproarious. What bothered me about this formula was the nature of the laugh it inspired, a vocal acknowledgment that a joke had been told, like automatic applause at the end of a song.

A skillful comedian could coax a laugh with tiny indicators such as a vocal tic (Bob Hope's "But I wanna tell ya") or even a slight body shift. Jack E. Leonard used to punctuate jokes by slapping his stomach with his hand. One night, watching him on "The Tonight Show," I noticed that several of his punch lines had been unintelligible, and the audience had actually laughed at nothing but the cue of his hand slap.

These notions stayed with me until they formed an idea that revolutionized my comic direction: What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anticlimax? What would the audience do with all that tension? Theoretically, it would have to come out sometime. But if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation. This type of laugh seemed stronger to me, as they would be laughing at something they chose, rather than being told exactly when to laugh.

Link to Steve Martin in Smithsonian, Link to buy Born Standing Up

Michael Larabel writes "Phoronix has up a list compiling eight of the most interesting improvements on track for GNOME 2.22. These improvements include the Epiphany browser switching to the WebKit back-end, transition effects inside the Evince document viewer, a new GNOME application for taking photos and recording videos from web cameras followed by applying special effects, a mouse tweaking module for improved accessibility, and a new GNOME VNC client. On the multimedia end, GNOME 2.22 has a few new features appended to the Totem movie player and the Rhythmbox player. Totem can now search and play YouTube videos and connect to a MythTV server and watch past recordings or view live TV. Rhythmbox now can utilize FM radio tuners, integration with new lyric sites, improved Podcast feed support, and even has support for communicating with newer Sony PSPs. There will also be a standalone Flash player and flash previewing support from the file browser in this release."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SilverJacket's Matt Hutson posted scans from a 1991 anti-drug kids book called Focus On Hallucinogens. According to Hutson, "It explains to 9-year-olds everything from neurons to shamans." From his post:

In some cases the book might be counterproductive: "Have you ever looked at yourself in an amusement park mirror? Look what happened to you! Now, try to imagine that the whole world looked that way to you."

Awesome! Where can I get some?

Link

Previously on BB:
• Richard Evans Schultes's Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants Link

Our pals at Gama-Go, creators of the Boing Boing hoodie, have issued this fantastic t-shirt for advertising your pirate pride. The "I Pirate Music" t-shirt, $28, is also available in red.
Link

National Geographic has a quick and helpful interactive introduction to the human brain, explaining in simple terms the brain's anatomy, some common diseases, and also which parts of the brain are lit up by smells, light, sound, romance, and other stimuli. From the site:

The brain's nerve cells are known as neurons, which make up the organ's so-called "gray matter." The neurons transmit and gather electrochemical signals that are communicated via a network of millions of nerve fibers called dendrites and axons. These are the brain's "white matter."

The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain, accounting for 85 percent of the organ's weight. The distinctive, deeply wrinkled outer surface is the cerebral cortex, which consists of gray matter. Beneath this lies the white matter. It's the cerebrum that makes the human brain—and therefore humans—so formidable. Whereas animals such as elephants, dolphins, and whales have larger brains, humans have the most developed cerebrum. It's packed to capacity inside our skulls, enveloping the rest of the brain, with the deep folds cleverly maximizing the cortex area.

The cerebrum has two halves, or hemispheres. It is further divided into four regions, or lobes, in each hemisphere. The frontal lobes, located behind the forehead, are involved with speech, thought, learning, emotion, and movement. Behind them are the parietal lobes, which process sensory information such as touch, temperature, and pain. At the rear of the brain are the occipital lobes, dealing with vision. Lastly, there are the temporal lobes, near the temples, which are involved with hearing and memory.

Link

An anonymous reader writes "Do engineers have a way of looking at the world not all that different from terrorists? According to an article in the EE Times, they do. The story cites 'Engineers of Jihad,' a paper (pdf download) by two Oxford University sociologists, who found that graduates in science, engineering, and medicine are strongly overrepresented among Islamist movements. The paper also found that engineers are 'over-represented' among graduates who gravitate to violent groups. Authors Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog chalk this all up to what they call the 'engineering mindset,' which they define as 'a mindset that inclines them to take more extreme conservative and religious positions.' Is this just pop psychology masquerading as science?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Pre-PMA 2008: Panasonic has today launched an entirely new line of Lumix compact digital cameras - the FS series. This appears to be conceptually similar to the FX line but slightly below that premium range in terms of specification and possibly build quality. The first model to slot into this segment is the FS3, an 8.1 megapixel 3x zoom compact with the typical Panasonic blend of fully automatic control with user overrides should the camera misread the prevailing conditions.

Pre-PMA 2008: Panasonic has today further expanded its brand new Lumix FS series of digital compact cameras by announcing the DMC-FS5 and DMC-FS20. Both cameras feature a 10.1 MP sensor and a 4x Leica branded zoom lens (30 - 120mm equiv.) with the main distinction between the two models being the size of the 230K pixels screen (3.0" on the FS20, 2.5" on the FS5).

Pre-PMA 2008: Panasonic has upgraded its Lumix DMC-LZ6 and LZ7 with wider lenses, manual and semi-automatic exposure modes and - surprise, surprise - more megapixels to create The LZ8 and LZ10. Also new is Venus Engine IV, promising better image quality and more sophisticated noise reduction. The LCD monitors are the same size but pack twice the dots for image review that's far easier on the eye. Click through for the full story.

Pre-PMA 2008: Two new compact superzooms from Panasonic - The Lumix DMC-TZ4 and TZ5 - were announced today. Both feature the now-familiar 28-280mm equiv. 10x zoom with the TZ4 recording 8.1 megapixels and the TZ5 9.1. The TZ5 also adds 720p HD video recording and component HD output as well as a 3.0" 460k dot LCD for high resolution in-camera playback. More after the click...

Pre-PMA 2008: The Lumix DMC-FX35 packs a rather handy 25-100mm equiv. 4x zoom to squeeze expansive scenes onto its 10.1 megapixel sensor. 720p HD video is here as is Intelligent Exposure Function which is said to help avoid blown highlights and blocked shadows. Also making its debut in 2008 is the Venus Engine IV image processor - Panasonic says that the noise reduction is handled in a more sophisticated fashion than in previous incarnations.

Spanish artist Juan Francisco Casas creates his large artworks using just a blue ballpoint pen. Link (Thanks, Lindsay Tiemeyer!)

The idea has become so commonplace that it's almost a cliche: security and privacy are opposites, and we as a society need to decide how much privacy we're willing to give up to get more security. That's been the basic message of the Bush administration over the last few months as they've begun talking about ambitious new plans to monitor more and more of our private communications. But Bruce Schneier points out that the dichotomy is false one. Many of the privacy-invading programs now being discussed don't actually provide more security. Confiscating shaving cream and nail files at the airport doesn't make anyone safer. Neither does creating a national ID card, because terrorists rely on surprise, not anonymity. The fundamental issue is that real security involves focusing resources on identifying and stopping the tiny fraction of the population that is engaged in criminal and terrorist acts. The vast majority of people pose no threat to anyone, and it's a waste of resources to monitor them. Programs focused on the general public, such as the TSA's airport searches, national ID cards, and Internet-wide surveillance are a bottomless drain on law enforcement resources that will turn up far more false positives than real leads. Abandoning them won't just enhance Americans' civil liberties, but it will also free up resources for the sort of difficult, in-depth police work that really does stop terrorist attacks.

Timothy Lee is an expert at the Techdirt Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Timothy Lee and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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sleeplesseye writes "In a speech at the Midem music industry convention in Cannes, Paul McGuinness, longtime manager of the band U2, has called on Internet service providers to immediately introduce mandatory French-style service disconnections to end music downloading, and has urged governments to force ISPs to adopt such policies. McGuinness criticized Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' pay-what-you-want business model, saying that 'the majority of downloads were through illegal P2P download services like BitTorrent and LimeWire'. He also accused ISPs, telcos, device makers, and numerous specifically named companies such as Apple, Google, Yahoo!, Oracle, and Facebook of building 'multi billion dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it', and of being 'makers of burglary kits' who have made 'a thieves' charter' to steal money from the music industry. The full text of his speech has been posted on U2's website."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

JMG sez, "I think today's shirt.woot is tailor made for boingboing: a tiki-god Big Daddy Roth-style hot rod cartoon!" Damned right! Link (Thanks, JMG!)

cranberryzero writes "The demo scene has been around for twenty years now, and it has grown by leaps and bounds. From the early days of programmers pushing the limits of Ataris and Amigas to modern landscapes with full lighting, mapping, and motion capture, demo groups have done it all and done it under 100k. To celebrate this art form, I heart Chaos takes a look at thirteen of the best demo programs on the web. Flash video links are included, but it's more fun to download them and give your processor something fun to chew on."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Over on Play This Thing, Manifesto Games founder Greg Costikyan reviews Fluxx, an underground hit card-game that explores the notion of rules -- like Nomic or Calvinball from Calvin and Hobbes -- and has sold over 350,000 units. It sounds insanely fun:

Here's Fluxx's base rules: Draw one, play one. Okay, it's a bit more complicated than that; you shuffle the cards, deal three to each player, and when it is your turn, you draw a card from the deck and play one. Initially, there is no win condition.

Some cards are "keepers," which you play to the table in front of you and keep. Keepers have names (e.g., "Bread"), but mean nothing in themselves--but if a Goal card has been played, it stipulates a win condition (e.g., "the player who has both Bread and Chocolate wins"). Naturally, only one Goal is in effect at any time, but a player can change the game's Goal by playing a new Goal card.

Similarly, rules cards can be played to change the rules--increasing or decreasing the number of cards drawn and/or played each turn, and establishing a "hand limit" (e.g., a hand limit of 3 means you must discard any cards you possess above three at the end of your turn). Other cards are "instants," meaning you play them and follow the instructions, after which they are discarded--typically, these might allow you to take a keeper from another player or the like.

Link to Fluxx on Amazon, Link to review, Link to official Fluxx site

I watched Edward Tufte’s “Interface design and the iPhone” video and something about his voice sounded really familiar. Then it hit me: Compare it to Gene Simmons’ voice (his audio from that infamous interview he did with Terry Gross on NPR). They even strike a similar pose when, um, presenting information.

Pre-PMA 2008: Dpreview is pleased to announce the launch of a new section dedicated to testing and reviewing digital SLR lenses. Designed to offer the same class-leading testing standards as its legendary camera reviews, dpreview’s new lens reviews are the result of months of intense research, development and testing, including the development of new test charts and proprietary analysis software designed to overcome the limitations of existing systems. Find out more after the link...

Scott Jaschik writes "An essay at the Inside Higher Ed site looks at the fallout from the MPAA's admission that its statistics on college student downloading were seriously wrong. Among the questions: What is the MPAA still holding back? Why isn't the MPAA changing its position on legislation? 'Perhaps the MPAA's press release acknowledging its "300 percent error" will set the stage for new, less rancorous private and public discussions about P2P piracy. Colleges and universities respect copyright; colleges and universities are engaged in serious efforts to inform and educate students about the importance of copyright. And MPAA and RIAA officials ... should acknowledge, respect and strongly support the continuing efforts of campus officials to address copyright issues, in part by ending the public posturing that portrays colleges and universities as dens of digital piracy.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Rich Kulawiec writes in to let us know about a ridiculous situation in Florida, that has some similarities to the ridiculous Julie Amero situation. Basically, a bunch of school officials and local newspaper folks are freaking out about the potential for students to access porn and are blaming the wrong people while displaying stunning levels of ignorance.

The basics of the situation are pretty straightforward. A cop who works at a middle school in Florida has a MySpace account, that he set up with the approval of the police department and the school, hoping it would allow him to connect with the kids he's supposed to be protecting. One of his many, many friends on MySpace happened to link to a porn site on their own profile. So, because one friend out of a huge list of friends happens to link to a porn page, the cop is now under investigation with the local paper dramatizing the situation by noting that students could (gasp!) get to porn "in just three clicks." Apparently, they're investigating whether the officer is criminally liable for exposing children to inappropriate content -- yes, because someone on his friend's list linked to porn. Under that definition, an awful lot of people are probably guilty.

Ah, but the story gets better (or worse, actually). You see, after some investigation, people noticed that the school's own website actually linked directly to a porn site itself -- which would seem a lot worse than what the police officer did. In this case, the school had a list of "resources" and one of the links was on a domain that had expired and was taken over by a porn site. Now, using the logic that the school used in having the police officer investigated, shouldn't the school officials also be investigated? Apparently not. Instead, they're angry about the changing domain and are looking at "legal recourse."

So, to summarize: If you happen to work at a school and have a MySpace profile where one friend of many links to a porn site via his own MySpace page: potentially illegal exposure of porn to children. If you work at a school and set up a website that directly links to porn: you're a victim who should be suing the website in question. Very logical.

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mikesd81 writes "Sunday we discussed apparently great news: a company announced making a deal with the major labels to provide DRM-free, ad-supported music. There's just one problem with that. Reuters reports that the Big 4 music labels have denied having any deal with Qtrax. Contrary to Qtrax's reports, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner had publicly denied that they had agreed to back the new Qtrax service. Universal Music, the largest of the group, said it also had not signed a deal for the new Qtrax service and is still in discussions. EMI Group said that while its song publishing unit has an agreement with Qtrax, its recorded music arm, EMI Music, does not. EMI Music, Sony BMG and Warner all previously had agreements with Qtrax, which was testing a paid music download service. Sources say those agreements expired in the last year and did not cover the new free, ad-supported model now being promoted by Qtrax. Qtrax did not immediately respond to further queries about its agreements with other companies."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Anti-virus firm Trend Micro is suing Barracuda Networks over their use of the open source anti-virus product ClamAV. The issue is Trend Micro's patent on 'anti-virus detection on an SMTP or FTP gateway'. Companies like Symantec and McAfee are already paying licensing fees to Trend Micro. Groklaw carries the word from Barracuda that they intend to fight this case, and are seeking information on prior art to bring to trial. Commentary on the O'Reilly site notes (in strident terms) the strange reality of patents gone bad, while a post to the C|Net site explores the potential ramifications for open source security projects. "Barracuda has been able to leverage open source to bring down the cost of security. Early on Barracuda was blocking spam and viruses at roughly 1/10 the price of the nearest proprietary competitor (that was only selling an antivirus solution). Barracuda has helped to bring down prices across the board, and it has been able to do so because of open source. More open source equals less spam and more security. Trend Micro is effectively trying to raise the price of security." Slashdot and Linux.com are both owned by SourceForge.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Dr. Eggman notes an Ars Technica analysis of the firefight that is the current Congressional debate over granting retrospective immunity to telecoms that helped the NSA spy on citizens without warrants. A Republican cloture motion, which would have blocked any further attempts to remove the retroactive immunity provision, has failed. This controversial portion of the Senate intelligence committee surveillance bill may now be examined in full debate. At the same time, a second cloture motion — filed by Congressional Democrats in an effort to force immediate vote on a 30 day extension to the Protect America Act — also failed to pass. The Protect America Act has been criticized for broadly expanding federal surveillance powers while diminishing judicial oversight. While the failure of this second cloture motion means the Protect America Act might expire, a vote tomorrow on a similar motion in the House will likely bring the issue back into the Senate in time. It seems, according to the article, that both parties feel that imminent expiration of the Protect America Act is a disaster for intelligence gathering, and each side blames the other as progress grinds to a halt."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Owners of Olympus E3 and E510 can use their cameras' in-body image stabilization with pre-four-thirds lenses with the latest firmware update. The long called-for addition lets users specify the focal length of the lens being attached so that the camera can apply appropriate stabilization. For more, click the link...

While the IFPI and the RIAA have been actively pushing for ISP liability for file sharing, it appears some in the industry are taking it even further. U2's manager for 30-years, Paul McGuinness, gave a talk at the Midem conference where he blamed Silicon Valley's "hippie values" for creating the problem, and demanding that tech companies of all stripes start paying the recording industry. He's talking not only about ISPs, but also Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and basically every other successful tech company. There are so many problems with this, it's difficult to know where to begin, but let's tackle a few of the quotes:

First he blames these companies who have "built multibillion dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it."

This is a common refrain from those in struggling industries, but it's meaningless. Complementary goods are a natural for building bigger markets, but no one expects one side to pay the other just for moral reasons. The oil industry's success is built on the backs of the automobile industry, but does the automobile industry demand that oil companies have a moral obligation to pay them? Computer makers have built a multibillion dollar industry on the backs of the internet and software companies -- yet, no one says they have a moral obligation to pay those companies anything. Travel guides have built huge business based on hotels and restaurants around the globe, but does anyone think that those travel guides owe the hotels and restaurants money for doing so? Hell, the recording industry itself was built off the backs of complementary goods such as radio, yet when they paid radio stations, it was known as payola and outlawed.

These companies, McGuiness claims, need to help out "not on the basis of reluctantly sharing advertising revenue, but collecting revenue for the use and sale of our content."

Uh huh. And I guess that automobile companies should be collecting revenue for the oil companies. And, home builders should be collecting revenue for the electricity companies. And, airlines should be collecting revenue for the hotel industry. You see, these are all separate industries. They may be complementary, but it's up to each one individually to figure out the business models that work. None should be pressured into saving the other from its own missteps.

"I call on them to do two things: first, taking responsibility for protecting the music they are distributing; and second, by commercial agreements, sharing their enormous revenues with the content makers and owners."

This is beginning to sound an awful like journalists who claim that Google has a moral obligation to "share revenue" with newspapers.

He claims that what all of these companies do is the equivalent of a magazine that "was advertising stolen cars, processing payments for them and arranging delivery."

That makes for a nice soundbite but has nothing to do with reality. First there's the little problem that nothing is being stolen here, only copied. Second, none of these companies are "processing payment" for unauthorized transactions. Third, none of them are "arranging delivery." It would be like the same scenario, but blaming the guys who paved the road on which the car was driven.

"Embedded deep down in the brilliance of those entrepreneurial, hippie values seems to be a disregard for the true value of music."

First, this shows a misunderstanding about the difference between price and value. It also misunderstands the culture of Silicon Valley, which is generally more libertarian these days than "hippie."

On top of all this, McGuiness is whining about this at the same time that U2 is pulling in incredible profits, making $355 million on its last tour. You know what helped fuel some of that? The fact that a new generation of fans are learning about U2 from downloading its music for free. Not only that, since they don't have to stretch their entertainment dollars as far on buying the actual music, they can pay the exorbitant concert ticket prices that U2 is charging these days.

The problem here isn't that others are letting the recording industry languish. It's that just about every other industry has realized that there's plenty of money to be made in the music industry. As we've pointed out, just about every aspect of the industry is doing fantastically well. More money is being made on concert revenue than ever before. More artists are making music than ever before. More music is being heard than ever before. Even more musical instruments are being sold than ever before in the past. Yet, because one segment of the market (the one selling plastic discs) is unwilling to take some simple steps to change its business model, everyone else has to pay up?

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Eirikso sez, "NRK, the Norwegian state broadcaster, just made one of their most popular TV shows available for free through bittorrent. Without any DRM or restrictions. Free for the planet to watch. Because this is a completely legal download people seems to seed it happily. Making the bittorrent technology work exceptionally well, giving the audience very high download speeds. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation will keep on with experiments like these and try to make more content available through this technology in addition to the more traditional channels of streaming, podcasts and DVD sales."

The very popular series called “Nordkalotten 365? has been aired on traditional TV in Norway and is now made available for download. In this series the experienced hiker Lars Monsen has traveled alone through the north of Scandinavia for one year. The first episode is already published and the next episodes will be made available as they are encoded.

The files are MPEG4 H.264, 1024×576 25fps, 3 Mbit/s. No DRM.

Link (Thanks, Eirikso!)

In my new Guardian column, "Copyright law should distinguish between commercial and cultural uses," I argue for a new kind of copyright law, one that mirrors the "folk copyright" that individuals have lived by for decades -- the alternative is to try to get kids and fans to participate in the "real" copyright, a system of industrial regulation so complex that it can barely be understood by full-time copyright attorneys.

This is a genuinely radical idea: individuals should hire lawyers to negotiate their personal use of cultural material, or at least refrain from sharing their cultural activities with others (except it's not's really culture if you're not sharing it, is it?).

It's also a dumb idea. People aren't going to hire lawyers to bless the singalong or Timmy's comic book. They're also not going to stop doing culture.

We need to stop shoe-horning cultural use into the little carve-outs in copyright, such as fair dealing and fair use. Instead we need to establish a new copyright regime that reflects the age-old normative consensus about what's fair and what isn't at the small-scale, hand-to-hand end of copying, display, performance and adaptation.

Link

Phil from the UK anti-ID-register group NO2ID sends in this nugget -- note the call to action there. We've got a sensitive government document revealing the British government's plan to trick us into a database state and we need as many copies as possible, as quickly as possible!

If you mirror this document, please add a link to it in the comments for the post.

UK campaigners NO2ID this morning enlisted the help of bloggers across the world to spread a leaked government document describing how the British government intends to go about "coercing" its citizens onto a National Identity Register. The 'ID card' is revealed as little more than a cover to create a official dossier and trackable ID for every UK resident - creating what NO2ID calls 'the database state'.

NO2ID's national coordinator, Phil Booth, exhorted bloggers, freedom lovers and anyone who gives a damn about personal privacy to mirror the annotated document on their site.

"The charade is over. While ministers try to bamboozle the British public with fairytales about fingerprints, officials are plotting how to dupe and bully the population into surrendering control of their own identities."

"Biometric ID cards are a sham; a magician's flourish to cover the biggest identity fraud there has ever been."

1.2MB PDF Link (mirror this file!)